Yesterday was the family visit day. All six of the nieces from Jacqueline’s side of the family made it through at different times of the day, and my (Ben Sr.’s) uncle Joe and aunt Petra dropped off my mom for the “changing of the guard,” as Brenda headed home for a much needed break from taking care of us.
Pacifier is a great name for it.
If the pediatrician or lactation consultant we spoke to is reading this, I’m sorry, but we are already using a pacifier. If said healthcare professionals have a problem with that, they get to come and bounce him to sleep.
The pacifier is seriously like a drug. One or two hits on it, and his eyes start rolling back in his head, his whole body goes limp, and he is buzzing like a champ. We discovered this after what we will affectionately call the “feeding marathon of 2008” a few nights ago. Jacqueline fed him for basically 4 straight hours, from 3ish to around 7 AM. For those of you keeping score at home, that’s generally a time that most humans are asleep. I took over at 7, and since I am running woefully short on breastmilk these days, I reached for the pacifier, to give Jacqueline a much needed nap.
Sending laborers into the harvest, or a Summer well spent.
This summer, due to Ben Jr’s arrival, we took a break from our normal summer assignments (where we work to advance the gospel via overseas summer projects or by training students on a stateside summer project) to ease in to the life of parenthood. Jacqueline’s job description changes to “full-time mom” for the next few years.
As a result, my summer assignment this year is to phone coach a batch of freshly graduated students who have committed to a one year internship with Campus Crusade either in the states or overseas. I coach them in the process of developing a team of financial and prayer ministry partners, and also help them with all other aspects of the transition from student life to this scary new “real world.”
The thrill for me has been seeing the fruit of other staff members’ work of winning these students to Christ, building them up in their faith, and sending them literally all around the world. The interns that I am coaching are going to Argentina (two different cities), Lebanon, Slovakia, a large closed country in Eastern Asia (if I told you I’d have to shoot you), Memphis, South Carolina, and Middle Tennessee. This summer I get a clear picture of why we do what we do.
Over the summer, I will be sharing the stories of how God called each of these folks to sacrifice a year of their lives to reach students for Christ. Please join me in praying that each of them gets the funding they need to report to their assignments on time!
Baby Sling. Not as Cool as a baby Slingbox. But Close.
So, I am hoping that my phone very soon becomes a baby slingbox (with Steve Jobs about the give a keynote speech at the WWDC hopefully talking more about iPhone apps, icluding my fantasy world where a slingbox could be added to it), but in the event that it doesn’t, I always have the baby sling to fall back on.
My wife Jacqueline (or Jacq for short—hence all the plays on the phrase ‘Jack in the Box’ found here and at our website) is amazing. That is unrelated to the baby sling, but since she made the baby sling, I think it serves as evidence for the statement.
She made me a custom, UNC baby sling. Now I can not only look like a hippie, (which is a secret desire of mine… refer to the hairstyles I have rocked over the past years…) but now I can pull off “appropriately wine-and-cheese-snobby” and hippie all at the same time. Nothing says snob like a piece of UNC apparel. We have a right to be snobs, we’re the best!
The baby sling takes some getting used to, and requires one hand over the baby’s head while moving. I have yet to slap his head into anything of substance, but it has been a near-miss on several occasions.
Well, back to checking the macworld live feed of the WWDC keynote. I’m such a dork.
Contributions (click here after reading below)
Link: Contributions (click here after reading below)
For those that don’t know, Campus Crusade for Christ staff members raise their own salary, benefits charges, and ministry expenses.
We don’t see it as just asking for financial support, but as an appeal to partnership. We want a team of people to reach college students with the gospel. We volunteer to be the members of that team that go out and beat the bushes on the college campus. But we need a team of people behind us to “hold the rope” financially and prayerfully.
We Christians get a bad rap for always asking for money. I realize that. This is not an appeal for you to send money if you don’t want college students to hear the gospel, or if you aren’t a Christian yourself. Skip this post and stay tuned for more content that will be decidedly more light-hearted and fun. But if you are a Christian, and you do want to see college students reached with the gospel, we need you. Our team is not complete, and with the addition of the new little boy, our needs have increased. Please prayerfully consider supporting us with your prayers and your giving. Thank you for taking the time to read this.